Relatives calling bereaved Mother - no engaged tone & ring tone is international style so think broken!

[Debbie31]

There have been many posts about this issue, and each time, the Forum moderators seem to answer as if it is brand new?   My lovely Dad has just died and relatives and friends are trying to call my Mother on her Virgin home phone.  The number sounds as if it overseas as it has an international ring tone, and when she is on a call and we try to call her, there is no engaged tone at all.  It simply beeps and cuts off from a mobile, and no sound at all if calling from landline.  People think the phone is broken and then start making worried calls to other members of the family.    The fault has been with Virgin tech support for over 2 weeks now (Tier 3 so you know how long I will have spent on the phone to get that far!)   An engineer rang before Christmas to say still working on it, and I chased on Thursday and got a promise of a 48 hr update to my number.  Nothing heard so far.    Virgin please help fix this for my Mother and for all the other Virgin users that are despairing of new technology failing to provide a basic service that is consistent with the basic, reliable service of the past.

[Molly_T]

Hi Debbie31 👋 Thank you for posting!

So sorry to hear about this issue with your Mother's service, and with your difficulties in getting support! Having a quick look for you it does look like this is the first post regarding this issue from your user and on this thread. Have you previously been using another account to post and get support from? Or adding posts to an existing thread with a similar issue?

Do you know if the landline is connected via the Hub? Or via a traditional landline socket?

We will need to send you a PM to confirm a few account details so we can look into what is happening with the landline issue, and offer further support with this. I will do this for you now - you can find the PM in the top right corner of the page in your Inbox. 📩 We can then return to this public thread with another update when possible. Thank you for your patience in the meantime!

Wishing you all the best. 🌞

[Debbie31]

Hi Molly

If you simply search the Forum for 'engaged tone problem' or 'international dial tone' you will find posts from other people having the same issues from the past year.......   Thank you for getting in touch and will respond to your private message.

[ozsat]

VM Customer Support is very much like the 'Post Office Horizon Support' line currently in "Mr Gray v the Post Office'  -   "you are the only one!"

Every time the clioks change in the US the SH5 changes too and so is wrong until the UK changes.

It is reported each year by many and dispite being an annual bug it is still not accepted by VM.

I've been told by callers to me that they now get s US style tone.

It is going to take a while for VM to accept that there is a US infuence in their digial 'phone services.

[Debbie31]

Hi - thank you for your note.  Yes I agree with you, surely this must be a simple configuration issue on the back end!  But..... not fixed yet.   When I call her from a landline, if she is engaged, it just cuts me (and anyone else calling) off, as if the phone is not working at all.

Have had two further calls from customer service, asking me same questions and saying it is being looked into.  Constant calls from friends and relatives to my Sister and I asking if Mum has changed her phone number....  I would move my Mum's service, but it's tied in with TV and the upheaval and confusion would be too much for her.   Will update you if/when there is a fix...  

[Paul_DN]

Hi Debbie31,

Thank you for reaching back out, does your Mum have an answerphone or our free Voicemail, this would then allow the caller to leave a message if engaged?

Regards

Paul.

[Debbie31]

Hi - thanks for you reply.  If the ring tone on Virgin phones is to become the US style one, it would be helpful if they would be honest and tell people that the change is permanent and not a fault.  Have to say, no sound at all when the phone is engaged is the bigger problem...

[Paul_DN]

Hi Debbie,

I can see my colleague who you spoke to recently has reached out for some more information and help around this, when she is back in I will reach out and ask for an update, once I have spoken to her I will get back to you.

Regards

Paul.

[Paul_DN]

Hi Debbie31,

Sorry for the delay, have you had contact with the second line technical team who were offering support with the fault, did you explain all aspects of the fault, were they able to advise any help & support?

We have raised this again internally.

Regards

Paul.

[Debbie31]

Hi Paul

The problem seems now to have been fixed by disconnecting the service and re-provisioning it.  Let's hope it's permanent.  Very helpful chap named Stephen Gooch from Virgin Media got in touch.  My thanks to Molly and yourself for escalating it.

Debbie